Everyone turned their attention toward that lavish horse-drawn carriage, and all of them were surprised to see the beautiful woman in the red dress.

  “Half a dragon coin and half a gold coin…… That’s the Buffett Family emblem!”


  “It’s Scheer Buffett! She’s the person that’s truly in power in the Buffett Family! She wants to become a judge for this contest?”


  “I was right to have waited an entire hour; this judging panel is incredible!”


  Many people soon identified the beautiful woman standing on the horse-drawn carriage, and all of them were very surprised.

  Mag was also looking at Scheer with a hint of surprise on his face. This legendary woman from Chaos City’s business circle was even more beautiful than he had imagined.

  She had a pair of exuberant red lips, while her brown curls gave one the false impression that she was more mature than her actual age suggested. She stood on the carriage, exuding the air of a professional and domineering businesswoman, completely devoid of the timidity commonly seen in young 17- or 18-year-old women like her, and the sections of her long slender legs peeking out from beneath her red dress drew attention from many men in the crowd.

  “Alright, this beautiful young lady will be the final judge for today.” Mag nodded with a smile. He was planning on meeting this legendary young woman from the Buffett Family anyway, so this was clearly a good opportunity for him to make her acquaintance.

  “You’ve got a good eye.” A captivating smile appeared on Scheer’s face as she got down gracefully from the horse-drawn carriage before making her way to the front of the crowd.

  “I’ll be counting on you, Miya.” Mag turned toward Yabemiya with a nod as she set up the required kitchenware.

  “No problem, Boss Mag. I’ll bring out tables and chairs for the judges.” Yabemiya nodded as she made her way toward the restaurant.

  “There’s no need for you to do that when there are so many men standing around.” Mag shook his head with a smile as he turned to appraise Ricky’s employees.

  “Grab three tables and place them side by side in a row, then bring out five chairs.” Ricky waved a hand, and his employees quickly got to work, creating a makeshift bench for the judging panel.

  Robert sat at the very center, with Scheer and Febid sitting on either side of him. After all of the five judges were seated, everyone directed their attention toward Mag and Robert, eagerly awaiting the commencement of the contest.

  Compared to the complex oven that Ricky had assembled, Mag’s rectangular oven appeared very crude and simplistic. There appeared to be a few steel bars on the oven, making people wonder how Mag was supposed to use something like that.

  “Do you need more time to prepare?” Ricky asked. Aside from the simplistic oven, Mag also had a table beside him, upon which all kinds of condiments had been placed. At the center of the table was a black box. No one knew what the black box contained, but Mag hadn’t set up any barricades around himself to obstruct everyone’s vision, so the answer would most likely be revealed soon.

  “Exactly an hour has passed. Let’s begin.” Mag looked at his watch to find that it was 6 pm on the dot.

  “Alright.” A serious expression appeared on Ricky’s face as he waved his hand through the air. Two of his burly employees brought forward the black mountain goat they had prepared and proceeded to slaughter it.

  “That’s a 1st-tier magic beast, a Black Skipping Mountain Goat!” Someone in the crowd was able to identify the goat.

  “Those things are quite hard to catch. Even purchased from breeding farms, they’re quite expensive. Both the flavor and texture are far superior to those of normal mountain goats. I didn’t think Boss Ricky would use it to make his roast meat today. I wonder what kind ingredient Boss Mag will use in response.”


  Robert and the others looked at the black mountain goat and nodded in approval. The Black Skipping Mountain Goat wasn’t exactly a high-class ingredient, but goat-type magic beasts were quite rare to begin with, and the most easily obtainable among them was the Skipping Mountain Goat. As such, it was a very good choice for Ricky to use it as the main ingredient for his roast meat.

  Ricky glanced at Mag with a smug expression. He had come prepared for this contest. He had prepared the Black Skipping Mountain Goat in advance, whereas Mag probably didn’t even have a suitable meat for roasting at his disposal.

  Mag looked at the black mountain goat that was struggling for its life with a calm expression before opening the black box on the table beside him. Cold air rose, and a cut of rib-eye beef was revealed.

  Mag had taken this portion of rib-eye beef from the fridge. The system had just granted him the right to access that ingredient, and the beef provided by the system was of a superior standard to the beef from the Ironhide Bull he had slain himself. Furthermore, it was clearly significantly fresher, so he decided to use it instead.

  He reached for the cut of beef before placing it onto his chopping board. The beef was riddled with even marbling, and one could tell that it was an extremely tender cut of meat just from looking at it.

  “That’s……” Febid’s eyes widened with incredulity as he stared at the beef on the chopping board, and he exclaimed, “That’s beef from the 4th-tier magic beast, the Ironhide Bull! And that level of freshness indicates that it was freshly slain!”


  “Who would have thought that this restaurant owner would be able to get his hands on such a prized cut of meat? There aren’t even that many mercenary squads that would mess with an Ironhide Bull. Only with an extremely high price on offer would any squad dare to take on the mission.” The white-bearded professor on the judging panel was also quite surprised.

  “H-how could this be?!” Ricky’s expression changed slightly, and he was struck by a hint of panic upon hearing that. He had thought that Mag would be entering the contest completely unprepared, but the latter had produced meat from a 4th-tier magic beast!

  “Looks like he may be even more prepared than the instigator of the contest. As expected, this restaurant owner is very interesting.” Scheer looked at Mag with eyes that were narrowed with curiosity.

  A stir also ran through the spectators upon hearing that. Not everyone could afford to eat 4th-tier magic beasts, particularly a rare and powerful one like the Ironhide Bull. In contrast, Ricky’s Black Skipping Mountain Goat wasn’t even worthy of an honorable mention.

  The ingredient is merely the icing on the cake. The most important factor contributing to the flavor of roast meat is still the skill of the chef. There’s not even a drop of oil on his roasting rack, and he hasn’t even lit a flame yet. He probably doesn’t even know how to roast meat properly; how is he going to beat me? Ricky’s confidence was restored as those thoughts ran through his mind. He began to skin the mountain goat himself, aiming for perfection in every single procedure.

  Mag also wore a serious expression of concentration as he picked up his Chinese chef’s knife. The tip of the knife glided through the beef, quickly slicing the two-kilogram portion of beef into two-centimeter cubes. Each and every cube was of the exact same size, and all of the cuts were completely even and smooth as if the beef had been processed by a machine.

  His exemplary knife skills drew many gasps of amazement from the spectators.